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Cringely Does The Math On Microsoft
from the follow-along dept
Robert Cringely's latest column veers pretty far off course before making a pretty simple point that I think most people recognize intuitively: no matter what happens with all the various Microsoft anti-trust suits, Microsoft will keep on not complying because the benefit of non-compliance minus the costs of non-compliance far outweigh the benefits of compliance. Part of the blame for this, he claims, is the time it takes the legal system to act. Basically, Microsoft can stall and appeal and play the game for as long as possible. Then, they can make some just-for-show efforts at compliance to keep people quiet, while claiming that the world is completely different now, then it was when the charges in the anti-trust suit were filed.
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another option
An option that Cringely doesn't mention is imposing criminal penalties against executives of companies that ignore consent decrees. Of course Gates could just buy his own country (Chirac would probably sell France if the price was right) and move there, but in other cases the threat of jail time might make a difference.
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Re: another option
That's true.
Look at the tyco execs and martha stewart. They're getting a lot of attention right now, but we have yet to see if any of them will get any jail time.
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Re: another option
We have only our Lawyers in this country ( America ) to thank for this ...
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